WWC: Jason Aaron - Handicapping the Ghost Rider Fight

Marvel confirmed at Wizard World Chicago what many readers of Ghost
Rider have suspected: The fight between Danny Ketch and Johnny Blaze is
about to go down.

Written by Jason Aaron, the story has been building in the comic since
Ketch, known to fans as the '90s Ghost Rider, showed up in issue #23 as
a servant of the angel Zadkiel. Blaze has been more than a little
ticked off at Zadkiel since he found out Ghost Rider was a servant of
heaven instead of hell -- and Zadkiel is the angel pulling the strings.

The Danny Ketch character hadn't been seen since his own run as Ghost
Rider ended years ago, and there was previously no explanation given
for his absence when the new title launched again with Blaze as Ghost
Rider. Now that he's shown up on the side of Blaze's nemesis, things
are really going to heat up.

While the story of Ketch's journey between his time as Ghost Rider and his choice to work with Zadkiel will be told in a mini-series by Simon Spurrier,
Aaron will tell the story of the battle between the two Ghost Riders in
the main title beginning with issue #28. Newsarama talked to Aaron to
get the scoop on the Ghost Rider vs. Ghost Rider fight.

Newsarama: You surprised readers a bit with that reveal of Danny Ketch in issue #23. Where did the idea for Ketch's return come from?

Jason Aaron: It was editor Aubrey Sitterson who first suggested
it. We needed somebody to serve as an earthly lieutenant for Zadkiel,
since we knew Zadkiel himself wouldn't be showing up for a while.
Aubrey suggested Ketch and at first I was opposed to the idea, just
because I didn't want to dredge up all that old Ghost Rider
continuity. I wanted to keep the book as new reader friendly as
possible. But the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea,
especially the chance to grow Ketch's character a bit. And once the
great Simon Spurrier was brought in to write the mini-series that would
serve to fill in the blanks in Ketch's story, I was really freed up to
just plow right ahead with what I wanted to do.

NRAMA: Danny's clearly working for Zadkiel in his appearance
here. Is Danny being mind-controlled by Zadkiel? Or is this a free will
choice on his part to follow the angel? And if it's a choice, can you
give us a clue as to why he would do that?

JA: He's definitely not being mind-controlled. In the main
series, we'll get an explanation of Ketch's rationale, but for the full
story you'll need to check out Simon's mini-series, which is just
terrific. In addition to telling Ketch's story, it also really expounds
on the history of the Spirit of Vengeance, which is really cool.

NRAMA: Zadkiel seems to have everyone wrapped up in his evil
wings. Just who is this Zadkiel guy? And what can we expect to see from
him in the coming months?

JA: He's a big bad angel is what he is. He's been in charge of
heaven's black ops ever since the Flood. Once upon a time, God flooded
the entire world because it was so out of control with sin. Afterwards,
he promised Noah he wouldn't do that again. Instead, he put Zadkiel in
charge of battling demonic insurgents and keeping humanity's excesses
in check. When God condemned Sodom and Gomorrah, it was Zadkiel’s crew
who swept through the cities, slaughtering every man, woman and child
they could find. When the walls of Jericho fell, it was Zadkiel and his
warriors who fought alongside Joshua and the Israelites, slaughtering
every living thing within the city. They fought with King David,
conquering the Philistines. They were at Gettysburg and Guadalcanal. At
Rorke’s Drift and Stalingrad and Hamburger Hill. For every Hitler who
emerged over the years, there’ve been five more that Zadkiel has kept
from being born or from maturing to adulthood. Behind every war over
the millennia, every mass murder, every pandemic, there’s been Zadkiel,
manipulating all involved, purging sinners, thinning the herd of
humanity.

NRAMA: Can you tell us anything about what motivated Ketch's service to this messed-up angel?

JA: That'll be the main story for Simon's book. Ketch's overall
rationale was actually inspired by a line from issue #37 of the
original Ghost Rider series, one that Michael Fleisher wrote.
Ghost Rider says, "The taste of vengeance is as sweet as it is deadly."
So the Ghost Rider may be a curse, but the power that comes with it is
also quite addictive.

NRAMA: Is it safe to assume that when Danny was Ghost Rider, he
was also unknowingly working for heaven and not hell? Or is there a
twist we don't know about?

JA: The Ghost Riders seem to have a long history of being lied
to, so yeah, that's one of the questions both Ketch and Blaze have
these days.

NRAMA: Now that we've been told Danny and Johnny will come into conflict in Ghost Rider #28,
can we expect an all-out, chain-swinging brawl? And will it be
hand-to-hand between Danny and Johnny, or are minions and/or mind games
involved?

JA: This is a big time, Ghost Rider vs. Ghost Rider throwdown
the likes of which has never been seen before. In round one, it's just
brother vs. brother, Blaze vs. Ketch, but by the end of the arc,
there'll be more combatants involved. And wait'll you get a load of
them.

NRAMA: If Danny is one of Zauriel's main soldiers on earth, does
he have powers? Anything in particular that's going to kind of mess
Johnny up when they battle?

JA: All I'll say is, it wouldn't be much of a battle if Ketch
didn't have powers. As for what those powers are and how they're the
same or different from his old GR powers, we'll just have to wait and
see.

NRAMA: Tell the truth. Danny's just jealous, isn't he?

JA: There's maybe a touch of that, yeah, but it's not that simple.

NRAMA: Favorite line or moment you can tell us about in the Johnny vs. Danny conflict?

JA: My favorite part is the ending and where that leaves both
characters and how it really flips things on their ear for my second
year on the book.

NRAMA: Ghost Rider has always had an element of good vs. evil in
his stories, even when his series was its most gritty. But you've taken

the idea of "good" and twisted it by making the angels the bad guys.
Among all the kitsch and camp that you've thrown in, is there some
commentary here about the battle of good and evil being taken to the
extreme on both sides?

NRAMA: OK, then tell us what else we'll see coming up from Ghost Rider in the coming months.

JA: Issues #24-25 find Blaze in a maximum security prison,
getting his ass kicked by a beefy, Bible-quoting sociopath called The
Deacon, and that story also features the debut of new artist Tan Eng
Huat. After that, Ketch returns for issues #26-27, along with a bevy of
old Ghost Rider villains, including The Orb, Blackout and my favorite,
Doghead. There's also a death, a debut and the return of a certain
hellfire shotgun. The big arc, titled "The Last Stand of the Spirits of Vengeance," begins with issue #28.